This invention relates to drives for vehicles, and more particularly, to a novel system for setting the engine speed, the clutch, and the gear ratio of an infinitely variable transmission.
An infinitely variable gear ratio transmission is disclosed in German patent application No. P 29 44 928.3, B60K 17/00, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,394, issued on July 12, 1983 to Hofbauer et al., wherein the internal combustion engine is transversely positioned in the vehicle while the planetary gear and the differential gear unit are positioned concentrically.
German patent application No. 23 01 776, B60K 41/14 discloses a control system for a drive train comprising an internal combustion engine and a traction organ drive, such as a belt wrap gear. In the disclosure, the accelerator pedal acts not only on the fuel delivery or apportioning mechanism of the engine, generally a throttle valve, but also on the control slide of a slide valve that changes the transmission gear ratio of the belt wrap gear. The accelerator pedal, acting through the slide valve, and a centrifugal governor both operate on the belt wrap gear via an adjusting lever that controls the gear ratio. By adjusting the ratio of the transmission in response to the torque demanded from the internal combustion engine and the actual engine speed, improved fuel consumption is achieved by providing a given engine speed with each torque. However, this application neither discloses a clutch coupling the transmission to the engine, nor how such a clutch would be actuated.